Resolution:
Looking at DCE log files on a VM install, you may see an error similar to the following: kernel:

e1000 0000:02:00.0: eth0: Detected Tx Unit Hang

This has been seen in VMware ESXi 5.0. It appears to be most prevalent when attempting a DCE backup. In cases where this issue does exist, an upgrade of the VM host to ESXi 5.5 has been seen to resolve this error.